The potato famine of the 1840s brought millions of Irish to America, where today there are roughly as many full-blooded Irish as there are in Ireland. The circumstances of the famine (there was plenty of food for everyone, but British landlords exported all but the blighted potatoes) had a profound impact on the Irish-American mind, resulting in one of the country's proudest, most clannish and vigorous—and, arguably, most romanticized—immigrant communities. To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the famine, editor Michael Coffey and writer Terry Golway enlisted the help of many prominent Hibernian-Americans, including author Frank McCourt, musician Larry Kirwan of Black 47, and presidential speechwriter Peggy Noonan. Hundreds of photographs, most of them beautiful, many of them haunting, illustrate thoughtful passages on how the people lived, worked, played, and organized their own society in a place that was often alien to them. The Irish In America is a big, sweeping book that captures both the ever-present undertones of tragedy in the Irish experience and the Irish inability to criticize anything Irish; there's a bit too much adoration for Kennedys and Reagans, and a bit too much praise for Riverdance. But it's a beautiful, tragic, thoughtful peek at an amazingly varied, emotionally rich and absolutely singular culture.